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Community colleges offer competition to CU

Students practice their climbing skills during a Wind Tech course at NJC in 2016. Colorado's rural colleges are filling educational and cultural gaps for residents in the state's smalls towns. They offer low tuition and the kinds of courses considered more relevant to locals than just a traditional liberal arts degree. (Callie Jones / Sterling Journal-Advocate)

From the college president in Sterling who visits dorms rooms to find out why a student bombed on a midterm exam to a packed classroom in Trinidad that teaches the finer points of gun-smithing, education on Colorado's two-year rural college campuses is done a little differently.

Compared with the much larger and more prestigious four-year schools on Colorado's Front Range, tuition is meager and instruction almost always one-on-one among the 13 schools and 39 locations that make up the Colorado Community College System.

Many CCCS schools and their 1,000- to 2,000-student enrollments are strung along the state's wind-swept plains or in the colorful San Luis Valley. They attract those just starting their academic careers or wanting another shot at a degree in a high-demand field.

The state's community colleges are grappling with the same trends that are changing the face of rural Colorado. The population is declining as young people move to the cities for jobs and education, so rural colleges are seeking creative ways to keep students closer to home, either through low-cost tuition, sports programs or training that encourages students to stay and teach in their home communities. The relatively low cost of attending a CCCS facility means over 62 percent of its students graduate without any student loan debt.

"Part of our mission is to provide affordable education, and so we do everything we can to keep tuition costs as low as possible," said Nancy McCallin, CCCS president.

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In all, CCCS served 137,000 students last year and trained more than half the state's nurses and more than 90 percent of the first responders. The CCCS system is also finely attuned to the needs of the populations they serve, students and school leaders say.

"We are all very responsive institutions because our boots are on the ground in our own communities, and we can move very quickly to serve those needs," said Trinidad State Junior College president Carmen Simone.

But in their mission to get more degrees in the hands of local residents, and to head off a looming nursing shortage in Colorado, the small schools are stepping on some very large toes. The University of Colorado, the largest university system in the state, is objecting to proposed legislation that would allow the CCCS to offer four-year bachelor's of science degrees in nursing.

The bill, HB1086, made it out of the Colorado House's Health, Insurance and Environment Committee this month by a 12-1 margin. The bill's co-sponsor, Democrat Janet Buckner, says it encourages more people to pursue nursing that otherwise would be discouraged by high costs.

"Nursing students come from a diverse range of socioeconomic backgrounds, and it's important to me that we make sure they have equally diverse range of opportunities to acquire additional training," Buckner said.

But the legislation prompted CU, which offers both graduate and undergraduate nursing programs, to term the legislation a "triage" approach to solving the nursing shortage.

"This is a hasty method of handling this, and that really concerns us," said CU spokesman Ken McConnellogue. "This calls for a much wider discussion of a critical problem facing this state."

Hiring enough qualified nursing faculty to head up a bachelor's program at the small colleges would drain nurses from the workforce and make shortages even worse, he said. Besides, Colorado already has eight public universities that offer four-year nursing programs as well as scholarships to help community college students make the transition.

"We believe we have to be a lot more deliberate about how we handle this problem," McConnellogue said.

But CCCS officials say they are only responding to a burgeoning crisis, especially at local, rural hospitals. At least 500 positions requiring a bachelor's degree go unfilled each year in Colorado, which will result in a cumulative shortage of 4,500 BSN degrees by 2024, community college officials say.

CCCS has formed alliances with four-year institutions in several areas, including teacher education. Otero Junior College and CU Denver recently launched a partnership to offer a bachelor's degree in elementary education that can be completed entirely at the Otero campus in La Junta.

This will help nurture the desire for local residents to stay in the area and teach, said Otero president Jim Rizzuto. Too often, area schools attract K-12 teachers with no roots in La Junta, and they leave almost as soon as they arrive.

"This way we can grow our own teachers," Rizzuto said. "They already have a stake in the town and want to stay and help our local kids succeed."

Otero, in a move to stabilize its 1,400-student enrollment, recently introduced soccer and wrestling to stoke interest in the school. Otero also has forged a relationship with the U.S. State Department to bring in students from 25 countries, including Russia and Pakistan, to earn degrees.

CCCS officials proudly point out that its open enrollment policies and two-year associate degree programs help fuel a diverse menu of courses — including wind energy technology, agriculture, horse training, psychology and medical lab technician — that prepared nearly 12,000 of its students for four-year colleges and universities.

The cozy, down-home nature of CCCS campuses often mixes with innovations that spur learning and later success for students, the schools say.

At Trinidad State Junior College, that means a nationally renowned robotics program is offered alongside classes that are homages to the city's Western heritage. Courses include holster and hat making as well as a popular gun-smithing program started in 1947 by a World War II veteran.

The four-semester course teaches gun repair, metal finishing and how to build a gun stock, said Keith Gipson, dean of instruction for the program. Prospective students are screened by the faculty before they can take the course, which usually attracts about 60 applicants for 17 slots, Gipson said.

"We get people from all over applying," Gipson said. Many graduates start their own shops or they work for large gun manufacturers. Quite a few are serious hobbyists.

"A lot of people have discovered grandpa's gun in the corner and they want to bring it out and learn how to safely use it," Gipson said. "A lot of people are coming in and learning how to do service and repair."

"No doubt, this is one of our most popular programs," he said.

At Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, students in the school's wind technology program are being trained to help build and maintain several ventures aimed at harnessing wind power, including the largest single-phase wind farm ever built in North America, near Limon.

"Wind energy is a good job; starting out you can make $50,000 a year or better," said Jason Hazlett, director of the NJC renewable energy program.

Jason Strohmayer, who quit his teaching job in Chicago, traveled the country and then applied to NJC after hearing a report on National Public Radio about wind energy.

"Wind energy is the fastest-growing industry out there, but I also care about giving back to the environment," said Strohmayer, 28. "I figured this was the best way to do it."

The personal approach works for NJC president Jay Lee, who presided last fall over a campus-wide Rocky Mountain Oyster fry. He also visits students after every midterm test to talk to them about their grades. Lee is proud of the cultural programs offered at NJC, including art and theater.

"We are the cultural hub for the community and the region," Lee said. "We really serve a five-county area here in northeast Colorado, and that is the heart of our focus."

The whole get-along attitude at NJC caught agricultural education major Maira Sagahon off guard and ducking for cover after she arrived campus last year. Sagahon, who hails from the Los Angeles area, was walking near campus when she saw a red pickup pass her, then quickly turn around and head back toward her.

"When that happens back home, that usually means the driver is going to flip me the bird, shout at me or something worse," said the 19-year-old Sagahon. Instinct took over, and Sagahon nearly dived for the sidewalk in front of her. As it turns out, the driver was one of her teachers, who wanted to know if she needed a ride somewhere.

"It was a little embarrassing, but it is something you get used to," said Sagahon, who wants to get her two-year certificate at NJC and finish her degree at Colorado State University. "Everyone is so nice, and everyone says hi. I can't think of a better place to study and make friends than at NJC."

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